Prayer for a Troubled World

Eternal God, our Father, we come to You with our needy lives and our troubled world. To whom else can we go? You have created us. You know us better than we know ourselves. But we do not trust you enough and your love as we ought, so we still try to bear the burden of life and will not let it go. Yet, we know that in our trying, we become weaker and less able to endure. The adventure of living to which you call all of us in Christ fades away and we find ourselves lonely and afraid, O Lord. Help us to learn the lesson of your promise to us: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength..."

When we think of our world in its strife and bitterness, we know that you weep as your Son wept over Jerusalem: "O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto Thee..." You do weep over our strife and revolution at home and the war. Our own bitter reactions drive us farther from Thee and farther from each other. O Lord, help us today by your grace to become at least a center of peace in ourselves.

"Mid all the traffic of our ways, turmoils without, within,

Make in my heart a quiet place and come and dwell therein."

When we sincerely disagree, give us compassion and a seeking for understanding.

We pray for your servant, the President of the United States in his lonely hours of decision. We pray for the leaders of both church and state as they seek to bring order out of chaos. Save us and them from merely trying to preserve an old order when it is concerned mainly with self-preservation and fosters injustice to others. But as we seek a new order, save us from destroying the old which has been bought at the price of blood, sweat, and tears. Keep our minds and our ears open - open to You first of all - and open to the cries, often the voiceless cries, of people we meet everyday and those who cry out to us from afar for a better chance in life.

We thank thee especially that we have the opportunity to preach the gospel of salvation and peace and to foster it in our community and our world. May we rededicate ourselves to the great purposes and program to which you called us. Save us from pride in the victories that have been won. May the glory be Thine. And may our response be such that there will be a rebirth of love in the Holy Spirit among us and a new zeal to serve you and our fellow man. Amen